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Deciphering the Hidden Ecology and Connectivity of Vibrio in the Oceans

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Abstract

Long-range dispersals of marine bacteria in the oceans have remained largely indecipherable, which is particularly relevant for Vibrio, responsible for global epidemics in humans and animals. Here, we combine the analysis of 40 terabases of metagenomic data and satellite-tracked surface drifter data, from across the globe revealing that Vibrio are abundant members of the ocean surface and show a strong association with microplankton, which appears to govern their distribution and connectivity at a global scale. We identify long-distance biological corridors connecting Vibrio communities, including potentially pathogenic Vibrio. These corridors allow movement over thousands of kilometres in a fairly short time, with estimates of less than 1.5 years to cross an ocean basin. These findings have deep implications for the demography and community dynamics of Vibrio species and the epidemiology of associated diseases.

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Data availability

The metagenomic data (n = 1485) used in this study are available in the NCBI TARA Oceans BioProject database under accession codes PRJEB1787 [www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/196960], PRJEB4352 [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/213098], PRJEB9740 [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/288558], and PRJEB9691 [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/287904]. Temperature and salinity values for each sample were retrieved from the TARA Oceans expedition metadata, available at PANGAEA under accession 875579. The Vibrio genomes from the EnteroBase database used as input for kraken2 classification are available at EnteroBase27 [https://enterobase.warwick.ac.uk/species/index/vibrio]. The Six-hourly Interpolate Database of the Global Drifter Program used as input to estimate the travel time between stations is available at NOAA AOML59 [https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/gdp/interpolated/data/all.php].

Code availability

The codes used for the analysis and the plots are available at: https://github.com/LDoni/Deciphering-the-Hidden-Ecology-of-Vibrio-in-the-Oceans and deposited in the Zenodo repository: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14677762.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the following institutions for financial support: National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.4—Call for tender No. 3138 of 16 December 2021, rectified by Decree n.3175 of 18 December 2021 of Italian Ministry of University and Research funded by the European Union—NextGenerationEU; Award Number: Project code CN_00000033, Concession Decree No. 1034 of 17 June 2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, CUP D33C22000960007, to L.D., E.B. and L.V.; Center for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) to L.D.; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, NOAA CoastWatch and OceanWatch to J.T.; Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2021-127107NB-I00 and PID2024-159955NB-100) to J.M.U. This study is a contribution to the project “National Biodiversity Future Center NBFC”, funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.4 Call for tender No. 3138 of 16 December 2021, rectified by Decree n.3175 of 18 December 2021 of Italian Ministry of University and Research funded by the European Union Next Generation EU; Award Number: Project code CN_00000033, Concession Decree No. 1034 of 17 June 2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, CUP D33C22000960007. We would also like to thank the Tara Oceans Foundation for providing the metagenomic data and the Center for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) for the support provided.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Luigi Vezzulli, Jaime Martinez-Urtaza

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences (DISTAV), University of Genoa, 16132, Genoa, Italy

    Lapo Doni, Emanuele Bosi & Luigi Vezzulli

  2. NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, 90133, Palermo, Italy

    Lapo Doni & Luigi Vezzulli

  3. Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), DT4 8UB, Weymouth, UK

    Lapo Doni & Jaime Martinez-Urtaza

  4. Department of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15706, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Joaquin Trinanes

  5. Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193, Barcelona, Spain

    Jaime Martinez-Urtaza

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  1. Lapo Doni
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  3. Emanuele Bosi
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Contributions

L.D., L.V. and J.M.U. contributed to the conceptualization of the study. The methodology was developed by L.D., J.T., E.B., L.V. and J.M.U. The investigation was carried out by L.D., J.T., E.B., L.V. and J.M.U. Visualization was performed by L.D., J.T. and J.M.U. Funding was acquired by J.T., L.V. and J.M.U. Project administration was conducted by L.V. and J.M.U. Supervision was provided by L.V. and J.M.U. The original draft of the manuscript was written by L.D., L.V. and J.M.U.

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Luigi Vezzulli or Jaime Martinez-Urtaza.

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Doni, L., Trinanes, J., Bosi, E. et al. Deciphering the Hidden Ecology and Connectivity of Vibrio in the Oceans.
Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71231-3

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